The demand for data capacity in wireless networks has increased dramatically with the widespread use of smartphones and tablet computers. In addition to using traditional voice services, consumers now expect to use their wireless devices to watch streaming video, play on-line games, and transfer large files. This has put a significant load on wireless networks. Despite advances in cellular technology, capacity is still an issue that wireless service providers have to consider.
To help alleviate the problem of limited bandwidth, techniques have been developed to allow wireless devices such as cell phones to communicate directly with one another without having to use a network as an intermediary. These techniques are generally referred to as Device-to-Device (“D2D”) communication or simply D2D.